Page 29 - DUT Excellence

URBAN FUTURES CENTRE AT DUT WINS
MAGUBANE’S BOOK EXPLORES LOVEIN THE ERA OF
EXCELLENCE AWARD FOR COVID-19 RESPONSE
Pictured: Prof Monique Marks and the Inaugural Team Award that she recently accepted on behalf of UFC.
Congratulations to DUT’s Professor Monique Marks, Head of the Urban Futures Centre (UFC), and her team for winning the Inaugural Team Award at the 2020/2021 HSRC-
USAf Medal for Excellence in the Social Sciences and Humanities ceremony, which was held via Zoom on 18 March 2021.
This is the rst time that this is a joint venture between the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) and Universities South Africa (USAf), who have come together to celebrate the outstanding contributions in social sciences and humanities. Over the last ve years, the adjudication panel focused on recognising individuals, established and emerging scholars, researchers and academics. This
year, the panel added a team award for an outstanding contribution in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. UFC’s team, led by Prof Marks, received this inaugural award, which recognises the phenomenal contribution of UFC during COVID-19, particularly in developing a responsive and evidence-based programme for homeless people who are heroin dependent. This with the acknowledgement of UFC’s sustained research, innovation and engagement track record since its inception in 2014.
At the start of lockdown level 5, UFC, together with partner organisations, including the eThekwini Municipality, Advance Access and Delivery,TB HIV Care and the South African Network of People Who Use Drugs, organised a withdrawal management programme in two of the lockdown safe spaces for homeless people.This initiative was so successful that the eThekwini Municipality has awarded one of its buildings, Bellhaven Memorial in Greyville, for the purposes of running a full-time harm-reduction centre. This centre is very low threshold, meaning there are almost no barriers to accessing treatment and services.This is the rst of its kind in Durban, South Africa and the continent, and has received huge public and media attention for its impact, both nationally and internationally.
Announcing the winning team for the InauguralTeamAward category was DUT’s former Vice-Chancellor and Principal Prof Ahmed Bawa, who is now the CEO of Universities South Africa (USAf).
“It gives me great pleasure to announce this. UFC at DUT is located within the Faculty of Engineering & the Built Environment.The idea of that clearly is to try and ensure that studies around the urban conditions and future bring a different element, different knowledge
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